It is now a whopping 15 days until Christmas, and I have my weekly update for you.

It’s looking . . . a little better?

I finished three things this week! I finished the little sweater that was in the top left, for my nephew (it’s been replaced by my vest for my niece in the above picture), the mittens for my friend Megan and the chemo hat for my Gramma.

I’m pretty pleased with how the hat came out! The pattern was super easy and I think I’ll do it again some time. The pattern is called “Sweet Baby Angle” on Ravelry.

So I’ve got a couple of things done and two new things started, but I’ve still got quite a bit left to do. To review, I’ve still got:

Flax sweater for me

Milo vest for my niece

Fingerless mitts for Ellie (the red ones)

Fingerless mitts for Anna

Sockhead (probably for me?)

Twins hat for Cody

Packers hat for Linnea

Hulk hat for Ike

Hufflepuff hat maybe for Ace but probably for backup

Fingerless mitts for mom

Fingerless mitts for Dave

Fingerless mitts for Jon

So there are, you know, a couple of things left. If I can find time (lol) I would really like to also knit a hat for my friend Blake? I’m also planning on cross stitching a little red balloon for Alex with the words “You’ll float too” because we’re creepy like that.

So since we last spoke, I have finished 26 things. Heck. I’ll post about some of those in the next few days (maybe. If I have time), but that’s not why I’m here right now.

Did you know, it’s only 19 days until Christmas?

Did you know that I have a ton of things to do still?

(Yes, you probably knew that.)

These are all of my yarns currently assigned to a (hopeful) Christmas gift. I thought I was doing so well, too.

In this pile of things are: A nephew sweater, a niece vest, a me-sweater, fingerless mittens for all three of my bridesmaids, one of whom is one of my sisters, fingerles mittens for my mom, my stepdad, and my sisters boyfriend, a chemo hat for my grandma, a Sockhead hat, and four “Quick Ombre Hat” combinations–MN Twins colors, Packers colors, Incredible Hulk colors and Hufflepuff colors.

Fortunately, not all of these need to be done by Christmas. The Hufflepuff hat is a backup gift, in case the one we ordered is late, and the Sockhead will honestly probably stay with me since I love it so much.

This is not, as an aside, all of my WIP’s. I’ve got a couple that weren’t related to Christmas so I didn’t include them on the table, like this year’s CON socks. Which have made it past the heel but not much further.

Anyway, I’ll be taking a new picture on Saturday to see how I’ve done throughout the week. (This photo is from Saturday I just didn’t post it until today because I’ve been knitting.) See you then!

So my knitting has stalled out a bit. I’ve been spending most of my time for th last couple of weeks Packing up boxes and working! Lily and I are moving again at the end of May, and we are so excited! It’s gonna be a bigger place in a really nice little neighborhood, and we’re thrilled.

I have been doing some knitting, though…

This cowl is about half done? It’s a fairly basic seed stitch cowl–the same pattern I knit for my sister for Christmas, actually–and it’s so cushy! I love it so far.

Part of moving is getting rid of your things, right? The best way to get rid of yarn has to be knitting it.

I’ve finished some things! I’ve been trying to stash down a whole bunch and I actually still haven’t bought any yarn! The last time I got any yarn was Christmas from my cousin (she got me some Noro! It’s so nice!), while the last time I bought yarn was in late November.

So far this year, I’ve finished six things, once of which I already talked about. Since then . . .

I knit a pussyhat for Lily’s boss

I finished these mittens for Nick

I (finally) finished the Malt blanket

I finished a pair of cute green socks

And I test knit these fingerless mitts!

I’ve also got some stuff in progress, though not nearly as much as I used to have.

The problem with January is that I want to start All the Things. I also want to clean All the Things and watch All the Things and read All the Things and . . .

You get it.

So far I’ve limited myself to starting two things. One of them is a pair of mittens for a coworker. I told him I’d make these for him for Christmas . . . 2015. Whoops. But still, they’re in progress now and he’s so excited.

The first mitt is almost done. I have two rows for the thumb, and then I’m going to use that yellow to duplicate stitch a thing into the back of the hand for him. It’s the Volcom thing, but I don’t know anything about Volcom.

The other thing I’m working on was theoretically part of a KAL during October/November/December, but then when they released all of the patterns at once, it didn’t feel very KAL-ey, so I kind of ended up not doing it. But I had already ordered the yarn and I did like the patterns.

It’s got cables all the way up, which is a fun way to practice the cabling sans-needle I learned earlier this month.

I’ve also started looking at patterns for wedding shawls. My current thought/hope is to make one for me and one for Lily, and then shawlettes for our bridesmaids. So far we’ve got two committed bridesmaids–my sister and my best friend–and two more we’d like to ask. Well, one bridesmaid we’d like to ask and one bridesman we’d like to ask. He’s Lily’s best friend and one of my favorite people, really. I’ve just got to figure out what to knit him!

Part of the problem is that, even though I’ve only been knitting for about eight years, I’ve already tried a lot of techniques! I can do colorwork, cables, buttonholes, all sorts of increases and decreases, lace, and socks. I’ve got most of the basics covered.

What this means, of course, is that I’ve only got scary stuff left. Seaming. Steeking. Cabling without a needle. All of which kind of involve an inherent trust in your knitting and in your own ability.

Early this month, I tackled what I think to be the easiest (or, least stressful at least) “advanced” technique.

I learned to cable without a cable needle! These mitts are covered with wee two-stitch cables that were perfect practice.

The detail in these was surprisingly hard to capture. I might try to take new photos once it’s warmer outside (by which I mean just above freezing, of course).

I used the oldest yarn I had to make these! Waaaay back when I first started knitting, I bought a couple of skeins of Mirasol Hacho, two to make mitts for me and my girlfriend, and two to make mitts for my mom. My mom’s mitts only took one skein, so this yarn has just been hanging out for forever. I bought this skein in October 2009, which considering I learned to knit in Spring 2009 is basically forever.